For some time now, I have been reading this forum with much interest and many of the things that bother us here in the San Andres Archipelago are similar to what is happening on small islands around the globe. I would like to hear from other islands, how they manage excessive garbage.

Our island territory, the Archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina, is located in the Caribbean Sea, 110 miles east of Nicaragua and 300 miles northwest of the Colombian mainland. These islands are owned by Colombia, although this is presently being challenged by Nicaragua at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Colombia has allowed these islands, a total of some 27 square kilometres of land, to become overpopulated by an invasion of migrants from the Colombian mainland, reducing us native people to becoming a minority in our own territory. (There are about 25,000 natives and 75,000 mainlanders).

We are now swimming in excessive garbage, with the threat of health epidemics that will be harmful to our children, youth and old people, and without any appropriate management in sight. For this reason my questions: is the disposal of garbage a problem in other islands? How is garbage managed in other islands? Isn't there some way in which islands can work together and cooperate in solving the threatening garbage problems?